Thursday, January 25, 2007

Lately I have been MISSING SOME FRIENDS. I also have SOME MISSING FRIENDS. I hope that while we are all caught up with our own lives, we could also let our lives intertwine at times.

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One night I dreamt of her. Subconsciously, I must have missed her terribly. I had not realised it in the state of my conscious busy-ness.

She must have employed some kind of right brain technique to creep into my REM state insidiously, like a wily worm. There, she did funny things to make me remember her. Since she always has such techniques of using emotive words to pull our heart strings, she must have some sort of power to do things while people sleep too.

I dreamt that we were supposed to meet up, but the rest weren’t around, which was strange as we usually meet up as a group. We chatted like how we always did back then. She, suan-ing me and I, suan-ing her. She is doing very well, like how she has always been doing. We chatted about lots of things but the details were vague. And then I asked her,

“Have you ever blamed me for leaving?”

She looked at me in her usual smiley slit eyes and said,

“No la! Why would I blame you?”

“I seem to be one of those whom people never expected to leave and suddenly wham bang, I had enough of it and decided that that would be my last term there. You have talked to us and tried to make us see things in your point of view but we still left.”

“Aiyah, no la. I need to go home liao. Come with me.”

Her house looked strangely familiar. It was one of those olden bungalow type of one-storey house. This image must have fused in from another figment in my REM state.

In the house, there was an old lady, I assumed to be her grandmother, and many children. They were all running about the house and were very happy to see that she had brought a visitor with her.

“Wow! All your students?”

“No, they are my kids. I quit already.”

I woke up.

I don’t know what this dream meant, ask the person who crept in.

I had wanted to blog about this. I would type a few paragraphs each time I had access to my sister’s computer but I could never finished before my sis chased me off.

I was determined to write about this before I sms her to tell her that I dreamt of her. For one, I didn’t wanna tell her directly what the dream was about. For another, I don’t know if she misses me as I do. Secarly I’m just a nobody to her.

Most of the time, I restrain myself upon thinking that the person may not reciprocate the same sentiments.

Heck, I don’t even know if she still reads my blog. Back then when we could still see each other everyday, she would quote lines out from my blog to suan me. As soon as I finished typing an entry on my off day, she would have read it the next day she saw me. After I left the co, I saw my ‘eateateat’ nickname mentioned twice on her blog and I knew she was still reading. Now, I have no clue at all as to whether she still reads.

I haven’t been catching up with her too coz those few times when I dropped by hh, and those few times when the hh people met up, she either had lessons, was in another branch or had something on.

Hence, I sms-ed her in my usual dee siao tone to mask whatever sentiment I hadAND

I will take YOUR word for it that YOU would be there during the next hh outing! You’ve been booked!

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I used to have this very good friend back in secondary school. When I transferred schools in secondary 2, she was the first gal who approached me and we clicked instantly.

That was 11 years ago towards the end of 1995. For a few years, we remained as very close friends and were each other’s confidante. I didn’t really care what people say about her because for all I know, she is a great gal and the best bud one could ever have.

We cried and hugged each other when we received our ‘O’ Levels results slips. Having always scored 20+ and 30+ points for our L1R5, we were elated to know that we had warrant enough points to go to a JC. However, we drifted apart when we went to different JCs. During our 1st year, we still met up and gossipped. After that, we just sort of disappeared from each other’s lives when she went overseas.

We only met up twice during our entire undergrad lives. One of my happiest meet up with her was in Perth. That time, kh was on course there and it was the Easter’s holiday week so I packed my luggage and flew over. Coincidentally, this good friend of mine was dropping by Perth to visit her friend. We managed to arrange a meet up through our very unstable long distance calls and sms-es.

Fancy meeting with an old friend in a foreign land! And all the arrangements were relatively impromptu. I could kick myself for forgetting my camera when I met her. Although I wasn’t able to capture that memory in print, that short one hour meet up made up a precious piece in my mind.

She sends Christmas cards every year. The hand-written words got lesser and lesser by the years. My tradition of sending Christmas cards stopped after JC, much less the handwritten words.

At times, when I thought of her, I would sms her but I would not get any reply. Did my sms-es somehow get lost somewhere in the 4th dimension? I am quite sure she did not change her number. I emailed her. No reply. Was my email floating about somewhere in cyberspace? I don’t know. Probably that address was no longer in use.

I didn’t have the courage to call as I thought maybe she didn’t want me as a friend anymore. But a Hallmark e-card came along last Christmas which was a huge consolation. At least it reaffirmed that the friendship is still there and that her email address is still in use.

Further emails and sms-es went unanswered. Finally on her birthday, I plucked up the courage to call her. It rang till it went dead. Three times in total.

What have happened to you? What have happened to us?

I have not forgotten you. Have you forgotten me?

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Recently, I started thinking about this gal I used to hang out with in JC. Both of us would pig out and slack and do unfinished homework during those Chinese periods when the rest of our poor classmates were having Chinese lessons.

The way I clicked with her was very different from the way I clicked with others. Usually I attune myself to people of the same siao-siao and bimbotic wavelength.

She was different. She was and I believe still is quite an interesting person. A little radical, not very mainstream yet not at all eccentric. She is a very nice person and friends from the same secondary school as her agree. Due to our surnames, she ranked just before me on the class list. Whenever teachers called out our English names, hers first then mine, she would tell me it sounded like ‘Angelina Jolie’. Our birthdays are just one day apart and she used to call me her Gemini twin.

Now, we have drifted apart. It seemed like I cannot contact her via her old hotmail address and maybe it is my fault that I don’t even bother finding out from my old classmates if they had her new email address.

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I’ve also lost touch with many of my St Nicks band friends. For one particular one, our parents knew each other. Our parents go out together once a week for singing while their daughters who used to be close friends do not meet that often, caught up in their own teaching world.

If you are reading this, please give me a sign.

Isn’t it funny how sometimes some people can really spend so much time with each other and have so much in common but once they are apart, all these didn’t really matter anymore?

It mattered.

People just get caught up with their own lives.

Did it matter to them?

I don’t know.

For me, I’m always finding a time when I’m so totally free to really pick up the phone and chit chat. I don’t want to just do a short drop by… tag and go… or do a “Hey I gotta go now”.

More often than not, I’m afraid that it didn’t matter to the other party as much as it mattered to me.

I’m more of the passive kind. But once I take the first step to salvage a friendship and I feel like the other party doesn’t feel the same, I would assume that I have already done my part.

So I just become lazy, sit there and not do anything.

Status quo.

Until I begin to feel all soppy again.

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On a lighter note, this was what I missed when I was in HK.

Our annual Pri 5B-6B class gathering! If I’m not wrong, this year was the first year I had missed it!

Looks fun! =)

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Monday, January 15, 2007

I miss the weather. With proper coverage, the weather feels like air con. The lowest was 11°C.

I miss being able to wear all those jackets which are deemed to hot too wear here.

I miss the food. Especially the Wan Tan mee.

I miss looking at all the hooded furfur jackets.

I miss looking at all the fall and winter dressing.

I miss........

Warning: Long Post

As usual, I will repeat,

"either open this page, wait for it to load and go do something else before coming back or just click the X button on the top right hand corner of your browser window and don’t come back." =P

Settings are such that some pictures can be clicked to enlarge. So if any of the photos look small, try clicking. =)

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DAY 1Walk Walk Walk

Our room at Prudential Hotel.

I love the HUGE 3 way mirror. I can view my side and back view easily!

I quite like this hotel. The room is clean, the toilet is clean. They have decent channels on tv. Tsim Sha Tsui, Mongkok etc are all within walking distance, that is, if you consider Orchard to Cityhall as walking distance. Not to mention, Jordon MTR station is right below!

We decided to take a walk around our hotel.

At Kowloon Park…

They have wu guis and many types of birds in the park!

We were having fun with this exercise machine when kh realised that the sign says that it is for the elderly! Haha

Old woman

Old man

Peninsular

I dunno how many star hotel this is but I was so excited when I saw a building bejewelled with names like LV, Gucci, Prada, Dior, Fendi, Lanvin, Lowe, Tiffany’s and lots lots more.

Views from Victoria Harbour…

I like this rainbow Samsung sign which will change colour

Trying hard to take artistic shot

Avenue of stars (xin guang da dao)

Kh being goofy ... "What did I do?"

My, how long we’ve walked…

The hottest slab to photograph…Everyone wants a slice of Bruce Lee, especially the ang mo tourists.

2nd goes to Jackie Chan.

Why no handprints of Chow Yun Fat?

Leslie Cheung!!!I still believe he’s alive.

Andy Lau Tak Wah!!! Kh was so happy that their hand size is almost the same.

The older he gets, the more I like him. I hated him in primary school when the whole world thought the world of him. Same goes for Aaron. These two are really charming when they get older. =)

Jet Li

Maggie Cheung the never-aging beauty

Maggie and me

Tony Leung the man with melancholic and attractive eyes

Stephen Chow and si3 ren2 lian3 kh

Harbour night scene with Bruce

Hello? Can you hear me?

Beautiful xmas lightings

The xmas light ups in HK is so different from Singapore. It’s literally LIGHTS!

We walked so much from Jordan to Kowloon Park to Victoria Harbour to Tsim Sha Tsui and around it in my heeled boots till the balls of my feet hurt like xiao by night. I could practically feel every bumps and crevices on the ground through my shoes. My thigh muscles ached too. We spent the rest of the night watching some Pearl channel and Discovery Channel.

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DAY 2DisneyLand

There are 4 themed lands here. They are Main Street U.S.A., Adventureland, Fantasyland and Tomorrowland.

Although the rides were not as thrilling, I must say that I quite like Disneyland. There was not much crowd and I didn’t experience much displeasure with regards to the crowd and the queue as how they reported in the news. The weather wasn’t too cold too.

I felt like I was really transported into Disneyland with all the Disney theme songs, all of which I recognised.

We were prepped for the Disney theme with their MTR. HK MTR looked very metallic and dreary. However, their MTR to Disney Resort is so cute! Everything is so Mickey Mouse!

Even the handles are in the shape of Mickey!

At the entrance

SIMBA! The lion cub which my cat was named after.

Pretty little gals in pink.I think they were on an excursion. They looked so sweet with their hair, skirts and boots.

Still at the entrance…

Main entrance

kh posing with the tickets before we went in.We thought we couldn’t keep the tickets so we snapped photos of them.

First stop, tram ride to tour the whole park

Love these adorable little aliens from Toy Story

They were popping up and making funny faces and boo-ing sounds like we were the aliens!

Main Street USA

Coin machineI chose Chip and Dale.

The famous Sleeping Beauty’s castle…The gal on the other side of the circle just kept posing and posing and posing that we could wait no longer and just snap. However, kh said she spoilt the whole picture and so we waited again till she got quite sick of posing.

Adventureland!

We had to board log rafts to get to Tarzan Island.

Tarzan's treehouse

Baby elephant that squirts water.

The view atop the treehouse

[Click to enlarge]

Chapter 1Welcome! Tarzan and I invite you to explore our home in the trees and discover its secrets and adventures.

Chapter 2Kala bravely rescued the lone survivor. With love, she raised the baby as her own and named him ‘Tarzan’.

Chapter 4When I first met Tarzan, I was frightened. As our friendship grew, I taught Tarzan what it means to be human. In return he showed me the many wonders of his world as ‘Lord of the Apes’.

Chapter 5Today we live happily here amongst the trees, close to out gorilla family and out jungle friends.

Mama and baby elephantsThese mechanical elephants look so real they could move.

Byebye to Tarzan's house

Next we went for a river cruise ride. There were 3 languages to choose from: English, Mandarin and Cantonese. The English queue was the longest! Kh had wanted to queue for the Mandarin one but politely gave the excuse that he was afraid I would not understand. Yeah right! I think we have the same thoughts of not squeezing with the Cheena pple.

I don’t mean to be nasty to the Cheena people but they really are very uncouth. They talk at the top of their voices and they do not understand the meaning of “queue”. They dunno how to pai2 dui4 and dunno what is pai seh.

River cruise scenes…

Bathing elephant

The guide asked, “Does anybody know how to differentiate a male and female zebra? Well the male is black with white stripes and the female is white with black stripes.”

I was so tempted to buy the Minnie Mouse ears hairband. Kh wanted to buy for me but when I saw the price, I almost gagged. It’s SGD$20++. He so zhi shuang and said, “It’s like that one mah. This kind of theme park.”

To save him the money, we did this…

Luckily the stall attendant did not holler at us.

Fantasyland has got no signboard… I guess the castle represents it.

We bought these...

Tinkerbell in our handsWhen the camera man requested for us to place our palms in this manner, I was telling kh that I thought they might insert Tinkerbell in. I was right!

Dumbo Jumbo ridesI used to like Jumbo rides when I was little. I loved how I was able to make the elephant, aeroplanes or unicorns go up and down with the gear.

As adults, we didn’t waste time sitting any of these Dumbo, Mad Hatter Tea Cups and Cinderella Carousel rides. We needed to catch all the show time of the various performances.

Winnie the Pooh rideThis ride looked appealing but it was a disappointment. It was so slow and basically, you just sit in the cart and listen to story of a rainy day and friendship. I can’t imagine people queuing up 30minutes for it. Luckily we used the fast pass.

Time for a 3D show!

I love this Philhar Magic show!!!

I loved it when the jewels and gems popped out from the screen. It was dazzling.

I loved it when the little tea cakes and snacks floated out. It was delightful.

I actually reached out and try to touch them.

When Donald Duck was splashed with pails of water by the mops from The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, we were also splashed with water. Nah… not to worry, only sprinkles of water. When Donald Duck burst out from the screen, I dunno why but I turned to follow, and what greeted me was his butt sticking out from the back of the theatre. It was as if he crashed through the wall. So cute! I quickly asked kh to see and he was wondering how come I would know Donald was behind. I guess I was too intrigued by the whole show.

The mops from sorcerer’s apprentice

We went into Fantasy Gardens without knowing that the mascots were there for photo-taking. It was great that the queue moved quite swiftly.

Minnie is sooooo sweet and girly! She really knows how to pose all the sweetie poses. And when she bends down to hug those little toddlers, my heart simply melted.

On the contrary, Mickey is so manly.

We bought this.It made more sense to choose the one with both of us but now, I sorta regretted not choosing my personal one with Minnie. That one was nice. Like 2 bimbo sisters posing. What's more I don't have that shot in my camera.

Mushu the cute little dragon in MulanI wonder if the person inside the mascot is a kid.

The camera man at Mushu pavilion was asking us if we were aware of the parade and we were like, “When?”

“Now! Go!” he shouted excitedly as if forcing us to go watch it.

We missed the 1st float…

The Disney Princesses. All not as beautiful as the cartoon. Oops… Heh… My favourite Cinderella was not as pretty too.

Alice in Wonderland

Little Mermaid

Toy Story

Mickey and Minnie

Donald and Pluto

Daisy Duck is so difficult to catch.

The Golden Mickeys ShowThis is like an award show honouring all the various Disney films and characters.

Advancing to Tomorrowland

We only sat one ride which resembles the Jumbo ride, only that they are spaceships. We sat on a Buzz Lightyear ride cum shooting game too.

Fooling around in the store

Glass sculpting

We had our dinner at Main Street Corner Café.I loved the set dinner!

Just Desserts!!

My set:Caesar salad, creamed mushroom spaghetti and mango pudding.

Kh’s set:Vegetable soup, chicken mains and marble cheesecake.

Spot the Mickeys! The waiter laughed at me when he served the desserts and I was like squealing with delight and saying, “Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse.”

I like their balloon-in-balloon balloons

Disneyland at night is so enchanting!

The spectacular display of fireworks was stunning!!! Their nightly fireworks were the best I’ve ever seen in my life! I love all the little colourful burst of stars.

The full video…

The above of course wasn’t taken by me. My video was pathetic and halfway, my camera auto shut off due to low batt.

I spotted a few commercial planes in the air while the fireworks display was on and wondered if the people on the plane could witness that marvellous sight.

"In this timeless land of enchantment, the age of chivalry, make-believe and magic are reborn — and fairy tales come true."- Walt Disney

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DAY 3The Peak, Madame Tussauds Wax Museum

Ji1 dan4 zai3

Eating time!Yummy roast duck rice and roast goose rice.

I was so happy that I bought a pair of very comfortable and flat boots for like SGD$30+ before we made our way to the peak.

I is a happy gal.

Atop The Peak

That house on the left belongs to some rich man. I spy with my little eye, I spy a mini ‘golf course’. That long grey thingy is the tram line. Photo on the right is the Peak Galleria.

Kh loves to act cool. I really like him in this 'Ah Sir' vest.

Sorry I just wanna show off my boots. =P

At Madame Tussauds…

All throughout the visit, I could not help marvelling at the height and size of these people. To be able to stand close to them, it’s only natural for me to compare height. I hope I’m not the only one who does that.

I love Kylie’s songs. I remember reading somewhere that Kylie is 155cm thereabouts, but I didn’t know she is this short with heels some more. And she is so small sized. Her legs are like skinny. She’s such a petite Caucasian lady.

There was a speaker behind Miriam Yeung and she would go laughing when you whispered into her ears.

The devil-is-not-wearing-any-prada-here-Meryl-Streep

Hugh Grant

Kh Murphy

Aaron Kwok!Omigosh! I know Aaron is short but I didn’t know the short kh is even taller than him! So short but so handsome… Aaron I mean.

Big eyes, fan-like lashes Ayumi looks stunned.

Brangelina Jolene

Cecilia Cheung

Advancing to…

The Legendary Leslie

The royal family

Kh making a presidential speech…

…which earned the support of…

Bush

AND

Clinton

Now, what is Sadam doing in this room of heroes???

These (not so tall) people reached great heightsThe peace-loving Gandhi and Madame Tussauds.

Deng Xiaoping

Alfred HitchcockNow, where did I throw that book of mysteries written by him?

Kh and meHaha no la. It’s Joey Yung. I don’t exactly know who she is and what songs she sings but this lady boss of an eatery in HK said I look exactly like her and even showed me the newspaper she was reading. She said our eyes jian3 zhi2 shi4 yi mo2 yi yang4. I think the lady boss' eyes got stamp leh. If only my eyes are half as nice.

I flirt, he flirt. Everyone flirt.I don’t particularly like Bae but I could almost hear the tune of tian mi mi as Leon Lai cycled me through the streets.

Madonna and JoeyGet me a midriff bearing top!

kh really tickles me.

We went back to the peak again for some night shots…

We bought this for the sake of the night scene in the background which we cannot capture on normal digital cameras.

A rare sight… empty MTR

So empty that can take photo

It was at the interchange station, that’s why.

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DAY 4Ocean Park

Eating time!I love eating HK Wan Tan Mee! One bite into the dumplings and I could feel the juice ooze out like xiao long bao.

At the entrance of Ocean Park

Long escalator up

Spinning ride

Raging river ride

All wet

Forgot the name of this train ride

All the rides

SGD$20 for this little radish-looking soft toy!I dunno why kh digs these kinda games. I always feel like I’m throwing money away when I toss the balls, the rings, the bean bags.

Long long cable car ride

Jelly fish aquarium

At the animal show

Kh took so many videos during the performance. I like these two.

The trainer pretended to be drowning and his seal refuses to save him. It even clapped its flippers.

The seal performs CPR.

The shark aquarium…

It was quite difficult to capture shots of the shark as they were swimming so swiftly.

What sharp teeth you have!It gives me the shudders.

Big mouth sharkKh really has damn a lot of friends man. Even in HK also can meet friends. The shot of us was taken by his friend.

SeadragonsNormal seadragon on the left and leafy seadragon on the right. Can you spot?

Deep sea

Big fishesLook at the stingray with kh’s head. On the right is Ah Gong groupa which measures 180cm in length.

First time posing for caricature drawings. Don't look like us!!!The uncle was better at drawing portraits. The portraits he drew really resembled the people.

What was warm sunshine in the day became freezing gale at night. While taking the cable car down, it kept stopping. We could feel it swaying in the wind and was horrified by how the leaves on the trees below us shook violently. I was so cold that I could hardly move. When we got down, the announcement came over the speakers that all cable car rides would be closed due to strong gale. Luckily we managed to hitch that last ride.

Last meal in HK…Juicy juicy medium rare steak and Foie Gras. Yummy yummy. Been craving for medium rare steak a lot lately. And oh, I know Foie Gras is sinful and cruel, But I like it.

I thought I would shop till I drop but the only thing I bought was my boots. Had wanted to buy bags but they didn’t have any design I like. Had wanted to buy beret hats but none of them fitted my head snugly. Had wanted to buy charms and pendants but found none. Had wanted to buy those cutesy stuff but they look like what I could get in Singapore for much lesser. The shopping was a disappointment but the window shopping was good.

Phew! Look at the time! I don’t even feel sleepy but I shall stop here, if not I dunno if I can wake up in time for work. I took so many hours to update this post. Luckily I managed to do some marking while waiting for the photos to be uploaded at the same time. Love to use his lappie to blog as I can use the highly convenient Picasa w/o him screaming at me.

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